No Land For Heroes: A Gaslamp & Western Fantasy (Legends & Legacies Book 1) by Cal Black

Author:Cal Black [Black, Cal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bearberry Studio
Published: 2022-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

21

Bigger Fish

Hal wasn’t sure how he had ended up here. Everything had made sense until a certain, tangible point: Gilbert needed help, so Gilbert hired him to find missing cargo and blackmail someone. They arrived in a tiny town that was weird even for the Frontier. The Deputy was angry and stole his gun and then… the dragon arrived?

Everything after the dragon had gone sideways. The elf was not just a deputy, but some unnervingly capable war veteran who had served under the man who they were working for and he wanted her dead? She had frozen the dragon in place? Alone? Then pretended to kill them instead of actually killing them when the Outlaw gang had presented her with the opportunity. Not only that, the gang of assholes who burned people alive ran away from her. Instead of letting them die, she saved their lives, treated Gilbert’s gunshot wound and was watching over the banker she previously hated while Hal tried to chase down their horses.

Ahead of him was a pile of stones that rose out of the grassy plain, and if he got on top of it, he could look for the trails of flattened stalks left behind by the panicked animals. A small thought popped into his mind as Hal reached the rocks and climbed. It was crazy, sure. But what other explanation did this all have?

What if Rousseau wanted someone to rob that train? Hal frowned, boot slipping on the muddy rock underfoot. It had stopped raining for the time being, but everything was still wet. The ground, the grass, him. Even if Rousseau was a drunkard, there were signs of a rational plan among the chaos. Rousseau wanted the insurance payout, that much was clear. But why target Gilbert while committing insurance fraud?

Reaching the top of the stone pile, Hal looked around him, wiping his gloves on his coat. It was already muddy from diving to the ground earlier. A little more mud wouldn’t hurt it any.

The prairies were beautiful, daylight breaking through the clouds in glorious smears of gold. It looked like one of the seminary’s stained-glass windows of when the Messiah had preached from the fount of knowledge or led the People to their promised land. Only, this was real. The air was fresh and the smell of dirt thick, though it still carried with it a hint of sharpness from gunpowder and dragonfire.

Reassuring himself for the umpteenth time that the elf was unlikely to kill Gilbert while he was gone, Hal looked out at the surrounding plains, spotting a few trails through the tall grasses that led first in a straight line, then slowly curved to the blue ribbon of a creek that flowed past the shack and rock pile both.

Hal pulled one of his gloves off, placed two fingers between his lips, and whistled sharply.

Where the trails of flattened grass dipped down toward the creek, he saw a black head appear, ears perked. The horse’s head bobbed as it started heading toward him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.